1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an apparatus for and a method of observing an inside of a living body by measuring a back-scattered light generated by an object having a light scattering property, for example, a living body.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ordinarily, it is not easy to optically observe an inside of an object having a light scattering property. In many cases, there are only proposed various methodologies of observing an inside of a living body. As one of the methodologies, an observation using light has an advantage in that a specific object can be observed by selecting a wavelength of a light to be used. In the method, a light having a wavelength, which is absorbed by a specific object to be observed (for example, a heterogeneous portion), is irradiated to a living body and an intensity of a back-scattered light of the object is measured, thereby obtaining position information of a heterogeneous portion existing in an inside of the living body. The back-scattered light is a light which has passed through a deeper portion of a turbid media such as a living body and the like as the distance between an irradiation position and a measure position becomes longer.
Further, the method can obtain not only the position information of the heterogeneous portion but also can obtain depth information of the heterogeneous portion. Further, when the method collects the data of back-scattered lights having the same distances between irradiation positions and measure positions, the method can create a distribution image of the back-scattered lights (that is, two-dimensional data). Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2006-200943 discloses a living body light observation apparatus including a light irradiation device and a plurality of light detection devices. The light detection devices are disposed at positions which are gradually away from a position of one light irradiation device. Further, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2006-200943 discloses a technology for reconfiguring a tomographic image of a living body (that is, three-dimensional data) based on a result of measurement.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2007-20735 discloses a living body light measurement apparatus including a light irradiation device and a plurality of light detection devices. The light detection devices are disposed on, for example, concentric circles at predetermined gaps from the light irradiation device.